


just a cruise

by potato_post_community



Series: i don't think you'll need me [1]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: But it's only technically, Character Death, Donald Duck is Paperinik, Episode: s02e24 Moonvasion!, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Parent Donald Duck, episode rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-11-02 06:08:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20647679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potato_post_community/pseuds/potato_post_community
Summary: When Lunaris explains his plan to Scrooge, Della and the kids, he happens to admit that Donald Duck might just be dead.Or, the family thinks Donald is dead, Donald is Paperinik, and he sacrifices himself for the greater good.





	just a cruise

Della and her family are locked away inside of Uncle Scrooge’s money bin, and it feels like the end of the world. The people attacking are her _ friends_, _ should _ be her friends at the very least. There’s no reason why they’re doing what they’re doing, Della was so _ nice _ to them when she was up on the moon and now… And now the Moonlanders are trying to take over the entire world. For what? _ Why_? 

She tries to listen to Uncle Scrooge as he talks with Gyro. After everything that he proposes, Gyro shakes his head and says that the Moonlanders’ have already dealt with the threat and moved on to something else. It’s not that reassuring anymore, the thought of him having any plan. Before this whole thing, she’d blindly follow him. Now, as she tucks Louie against her and reaches out for Huey, she doesn’t think she can. 

They’re in danger, and as Gyro says, “_This was a very well planned invasion_”, her heart sinks to the bottom of her chest. 

Before he can say anything more, or before Uncle Scrooge can bring up some other ‘unstoppable’ force, the screen on the wall flickers. Everyone looks over, curiosity peaked and hearts racing. The static on the screen forms into-

“_Lunaris,_” Della hisses, and lets her eyes shoot down to find Dewey. 

Lunaris introduces himself with a cold eyes and a thick frown, without forgetting to add the _ general _ portion of his name. Della sees Uncle Scrooge’s eyes flash with something, her own face blending in with betrayal. “For _ years, _ my people have feared your puny _ Earth,_” he says, his gold throne flickering behind him in the light. “I believe it’s high time the Earth come to fear _ us_. Now, I believe Scrooge McDuck is listening?” Lunaris cocks his head to the side. 

Uncle Scrooge hisses out something in retaliation to the taunt Lunaris throws, but Della can only focus on the alien on the screen. This is the man that made her believe he was an ally. He _ backstabbed _ her. For what _ reason? _ Fear doesn’t answer the whole question. It can’t. 

When Lunaris continues, it’s not a reply to Uncle Scrooge. The message must be pre-recorded, or just not have any type of two way call. “As we all know, according to _you,_ _family_ is the greatest _strength_ of them all.” The way he hisses out _family_ makes it sound like a swear. Della doesn’t like that in the slightest. “_That_ is why I’m coming for _them_ first.” 

Unconsciously, Della tightens her hold on Louie. So that’s it? On his way to conquer Earth, Lunaris’ plan is to kill off Della’s _ family? _ She can’t _ lose _ them. Not after she just got them back. 

The screen flickers to something that looks like a family tree of sorts, with Uncle Scrooge on top. From there, it divides into two boxes- Della’s and _ Donald’s_. (Oh Donald. At least he’s on a cruise, relaxing out in the middle of the ocean. He should be fine. He should be safe.) The third row holds a picture of each of the boys, all smiling with their young smiles and making Lunaris’ whole plan infinitely more times creepy. 

“It’s a good thing that I’ve already started,” Lunaris says from off-screen. Della can hear the grin in his voice as her heart skips a beat. What does that mean? “I never really considered him a threat before, not until I got to see him first hand.” Firsthand? See _ who_? “After that, I realized he wasn’t even _ remotely _ a threat. He was just _ stupid._” 

The screen switches again, over to pristine camera footage of what looks like a golden cannon. There’s screens littering the room that the camera shows, and from it’s view, Della can see _ Penny _ lying on the floor. Her eyes are closed, face twisted up in pain. 

It’s actually Webby who gasps first, pointing to the very base of the cannon as the footage begins to play. 

Lunaris stands on the ground, stepping up onto the cannon…

And Donald stands on the actual cannon, some square device clenched in his hands. He’s got a golden bar clenched down on his beak- Did they _ muzzle her brother? _

“It’s got to be fake,” Uncle Scrooge says, unbelieving, as they watch Lunaris stalk up towards Donald. Her brother looks more and more cornered, the closer that Lunaris gets. “Donald’s on a cruise, he’s not on the _ moon_.” 

Webby’s eyes widen, before she turns back around to look at everyone. The footage clearly shows Donald trying to get to the top of the cannon, but Lunaris takes the uppermost position to block him from getting there. “That’s why our postcards weren’t sending! They can send them to him because he wasn’t ever _ there!_” 

“How could Uncle Donald have gotten up there, though? Launchpad dropped him off at the bus station,” Dewey mumbles. 

This time, it’s Della who has the realization. “I crashed the Spear of Selene by the bus stop. He must’ve seen it crash and gone over to it.” She whirls around to watch the rest of the footage. Donald starts fighting against Lunaris, seemingly having the upperhand- Up until Lunaris regains his focus and starts blocking every hit Donald seems to make. He pushes Donald back down to the base and they seem to take a breather, before Donald looks over at a diagram that looks like the one Lunaris just showed all of them. 

They start to talk- At least Lunaris _ talks. _ There’s no audio, but he must say _ something _ about hurting someone in the family, because Donald turns absolutely _ red. _ (Della knows he only gets that red when he’s so angry, so angry because his _ family _is in danger.) The muzzle falls to the floor in two pieces and Donald takes off running. He lands a kick to Lunaris’ face, before sliding under his arm and up to the very top of the cannon. He yells something into the box. (He must’ve been trying to send them a warning. Why didn’t Scrooge or anyone get it?) 

Lunaris pulls out his ray gun and shoots the device away from Donald’s hands, scorching his fingertips in the process. Donald has no choice but to drop it with a squawk. Once again cornered, Della watches as her brother starts to shrink in on himself as Lunaris stalks forth- an animal and it’s prey. 

And then Donald takes off running and drops into whatever the hole in the cannon was. The hole disappears under a gold frame and the whole camera shakes. She can still see Lunaris’ sick smile as _ something _ blasts off, out of the cannon’s tip and towards the Earth. 

The footage abruptly stops and flickers back to the previous diagram, where a thick red ‘X’ crosses out Donald’s picture. “No one,” Lunaris says, real sound overlapping the picture again, “could have survived that rocket. Donald Duck is as good as dead.” 

Della does not cry, even as the screen flickers to show the mansion, an enormous rocket hanging right over it. She feels Louie turn his head into her and shake, sees Dewey shudder as he stares at a blank spot on the wall and Huey slam his fist into the table before him and yell. Webby begins to cry, Mrs. Beakley drawing her in close to provide comfort. 

Scrooge does not cry either. 

(Della had thought about Donald when she was on the moon. Not as much as her kids. Not nearly enough to remember him in perfect clarity. Even now, she realizes that she hasn’t seen him still, except for in pictures, since she’s gotten back. If she really loved him, wouldn’t she had called up the cruise line? Figured out that he’d gone missing so much earlier?) 

“We need to call for help,” Uncle Scrooge says, each word said ever so carefully as to not let his voice waver. “Gyro?” 

The other nods, fixing his glasses before waving for them all to follow without a word. As they stand in Gyro’s lab, Surrounded by little bulb robots, Della and Uncle Scrooge share a look. 

(Donald is dead.) Della can’t let her family be hurt, so she lies to the boys. 

She takes them onto the plane and she flees from danger, explaining to them that they’re looking for help from people around the globe. They don’t seem as excited as she expected when she says that. All of their heads are downcast as they cling to one another, tears either streaming down their cheeks or faces set stone cold and blank. 

They make their way to the pyramids first, because the boys know people there and it has to be safe. And then it’s not, because there are Moonlanders fighting against the two hiding away inside the pyramid. When the boys say that they should go back and help them, Della does not. She flies away and heads to Ithaquack. 

(Her brother is dead.) Della can’t lose her family again, so she runs. 

She lands the plane and herds the boys and Webby up the mountain. It’s just her and Louie who climb up the stairs, though, part of her cursing that she can’t watch them all. She pounds on the door with her fist, calling out for Selene. Zeus pops out with a scowl on his face, shooting a lightning bolt at Della’s feet. 

“Hey!” she shouts, pushing Louie behind her. “Let us in, you pantheon of palookas!” 

Selene’s voice breaks through the empty door, _ we’re grounded, _ followed by Storkules crying out, _ please, what of my Donald? _

“_Please_!” Della cries, voice bordering on desperate. “Let us in!” 

“So we can figure out a plan!” Louie adds on, confused. 

“We need to hide-” 

“Our plan! So the aliens don’t figure it out!” 

“We can’t go back to Duckburg!” 

“Without you guys!” 

Louie approaches with question after question, trying to catch her angle. There’s no time to explain, so she blurts about the plan being a plan and it being good. “_Please,_” she tries again. “They’re after me and the boys, _ Donald’s already dead!_” 

And then a shot rings out, hitting the door right above Louie’s head. Louie’s face falls, as Della grabs him. She rushes down the stairs, pulling Louie along behind her. To the ship. She has to get to the ship and go somewhere else, there’s no place on Earth that’s safe from these aliens. 

(As she runs, she misses Selene poke out her head. Her face is guilt stricken, and through the crack in the door, Storkules cries. _ Donald? Dead?_) 

(Her brother is dead.) Della can’t think of a place to go that will be safe, so she decides to fly until she can’t anymore. 

As she flies, one of the Moonlanders’ ship shoots bullets at her plane. She accidentally pulls up, almost resulting in her boys going splat on the lower end of the plane. In the end, she manages to right them, only for the kids to pile up behind her for questioning. 

“We have to go back to Duckburg!” Dewey cries out. 

Webby speaks up, voice wavering and sounding like she’s about to cry. “The plan was ruined. We had a chance to get people, but we just keep running away.” 

“At Ithaquack,” Huey speaks up, “you wanted to get us in. Not get someone to fight.” 

Louie’s eyes narrow. He’s caught on to her plan. Now, not only are all the kids stricken with grief- They’re _ angry. _ “The plan was never about finding help,” he hisses. “It’s about running _ away!_” 

Della grips the steering wheel, turning back and pulling her attention from their direction. “I have to make sure you’re all safe,” she says. “I can’t lose anyone else. I can’t lose _ you all _again.” 

She can’t, because Donald is dead, and if she doesn’t run away, the boys will be too. 

The Moonlanders land a hit to the plane’s engine, and that is the second time that Della Duck crashes something she’s flying. 

\---

When you’re stranded on an island, out in the middle of nowhere, there’s not much else to do other than think. Donald thinks about all of his life choices as he fiddles with the melon in his hands. He should have never left for that cruise. His family needed him more. 

He should have never left Scrooge, back when Della disappeared. That’s not what family was about. 

He should have never stopped putting on the suit, he thinks. Being a superhero was his world, and it’s something that he wants (_needs_) to go back to. 

He should have never lost contact with Daisy, with José and Panchito, with Mickey and Goofy and Minnie. 

He should have told José and Panchito that he loved them back when he had the chance.

All Donald’s ever done is run away when time gets hard. _ These Ducks don’t back down _ is a load of bull. 

So Donald tears apart his clothes, he scours the island he’s on far and wide. He ties up his wounds, he scrabbles together a mask and a cape. When (not if) he gets back to Duckburg, he’ll save the world as Paperinik and let Donald Duck die. Della is home and she’s all the boys will ever need. 

Donald is a coward. Paperinik is not. 

He tries to find a way back to Duckburg before the invasion, but he’s too late to do anything. One of the Moonlanders’ ships flies above the island at the same time a plane crashes into the beach. 

Donald’s heart sinks when he realizes that he knows that ship. He puts on his mask and lets Paperinik take over as Della and the kids climb off the ship.

Della only recognizes Paperinik, not Donald, when she sees him. Donald speaks to all of them in Italian, trying to play his speech impediment off as some kind of thick accent, and get them to not talk to him. It works, Italian wasn’t one of the languages that Della mastered during her time on Earth. 

While the boys work on persuading Della to go back to Duckburg, Donald hands the melon in his hands to Webby and tries not to hug his sister. 

“So you’re the Duck Avenger,” Webby says, plopping the melon in the water. She carves a message into it, a simple SOS. It’ll get somewhere eventually, and is worth a shot. Donald is sure that Webby knows Italian. He doesn’t speak to her, and she is content enough to talk. He doesn’t even correct her, try to say, it’s Paperinik, not Duck Avenger. When he gets back to Duckburg with his voice changer, he’ll correct them. “Today has been one of the worst days in the history of worst days.” 

He cocks his head to the side, curiously. _ Why’s that? _ he asks silently. _ What’s wrong? _ Why is she, and the boys, so down? 

“The Moonlanders attacked,” she continues, and Donald knows that. “They sent everyone a message and told us that they were after us and Mr. Scrooge.” She gets a glassy look in her eyes as she says the next part. “They even said they killed Uncle Donald.” 

Webby has never called Donald Uncle before. Had he not been wearing the mask, he’d let himself cry. He doesn’t know what me can say without giving himself away, so he lifts his arm and lets her curl up against his stomach. She cries and mourns and Donald can’t (won’t) do anything about it. 

Della and Louie come out of the dark plane, just as a loud _ AHOY THERE _ rings out. “It’s Uncle Gladstone!” Huey points out. “And Mitsy and Uncle Fethry!” 

“Della! Huey, Dewey, green kid, pink girl, and a superhero!” Fethry lists, before Gladstone shoves part of the melon into his cousin’s face. Gladstone explains how they found them, asking if they want a ride back to Duckburg. 

Donald helps everyone on board and climbs on after, ignoring his aching leg. Webby rubs at her eyes and gestures to him. “He’s the Duck Avenger and he speaks Italian. His voice is a little out of use, so he’s been staying quiet,” she explains. “We all need to get back to Duckburg to help Mr. Scrooge, and he can help.” 

“What’s going on with Unk?” Gladstone asks. “You all look like someone died- Scrooge isn’t _ dead _ is he-?” He hands off a piece of melon to each of the kids, face curling. 

“Uncle Scrooge isn’t dead or anything,” Della replies. “Aliens from the moon are attacking Duckburg.” 

Gladstone nods, Fethry moves forth to sit with the kids. “Worried for him, huh?” 

“Yeah.” 

Louie finds his way to Della’s side. “If you aren’t going to tell him, I will,” Louie threatens. He glares at Della, but his size and age waters down the threat. All Donald wants to do is reassure him, so he subtly moves over and puts a hand on Louie’s shoulder. As much as he wants to hug him instead, Donald refrains and absolutely melts when Louie relaxes. 

“Tell me what?” 

Della looks down, and Donald wants to tear off his mask. 

(It’s best to let himself die. They’ll mourn, Gladstone will brush it off. Fethry… Fethry might mourn, but Donald has a feeling that Fethry never liked him anyway.) 

“The Moonlanders… I got back from the moon on my ship and ended up leaving it in a clearing. Uh. I guess after the crash. The ship. The ship was still working? Like. If you were to take off again, it’d go. Oh, I was. Stuck on the moon. For the past ten years. You knew that. And Donald he was on a cruise.” 

Louie steps forward and says, “The Moonlanders killed Uncle Donald.” 

Gladstone freezes and so does Fethry. Whatever was left of the melon falls out of Gladstone’s hands and onto Mitsy, rolling off into the water once again. It was always called a watermelon, wasn’t it? It makes sense. Returning to where it should have stayed before.

This must be their moment of silence for Donald Duck. Donald joins, and lets himself become Paperinik. Only Paperinik. 

Donald Duck is dead. 

It catches Paperinik off guard when Fethry’s shoulders shudder. It’s not that he hasn’t ever seen the other cry. He _ has, _ so many times. 

It just doesn’t seem real to him that anyone would care that Donald’s dead. 

The rest of the ride is full of denial, of Gladstone trying to say that she’s wrong, of Della yelling that _ Donald is dead and saying that won’t bring him back. _ It reminds Paperinik so _ much _ of when Della first disappeared. Donald and Gladstone would go back and forth, Gladstone saying that Della has never let something like _ death _ stop her before, and Donald saying that she’s dead and it’s best to move on and forget. 

(He never forgot.) 

Mitsy goes fast, so Paperinik has to hold on tight to his hat as she moves. They’re ready for a fight now, all of them. The grief has turned to rage, and as Gladstone clenches his fists, Paperinik knows this upcoming fight is going to be ugly. 

They arrive just in time to see Lunaris holding Scrooge up, all beaten and battered. His top hat is crooked and his face is scrunched. When he looks up and sees Mitsy, his voice is rough with a special kind of tiredness. “Hi, kids,” he mumbles out. 

All together, the group choruses _ Hello Uncle Scrooge _ in varying forms of anger. Paperinik wastes no time dropping down to the ground as Mitsy works on pulling down Lunaris’ rocket. He doesn’t need to go far to get what he needs- back when he was doing the superhero gig almost full time, he’d stashed random voice changers and little gadgets everywhere. Voice changers broke easily. 

They’re by the docks, so once he’s on the ground, he pulls Scrooge to his feet and takes off for his stash. Getting the changer to work is basically just reflex, and once he tests it out, (and it works), he dashes back. 

Paperinik is just in time to see the rocket collapse, legs breaking off. Launchpad falls down beside Scrooge, where Paperinik assumes his new position. When his cousins- Donald’s cousins- and the kids drop down from Mitsy to meet Scrooge, he’s half expecting a comment of _ I hope Donald’s having a _ relaxing _ time on his cruise. _ It seems that he knows about Donald’s ‘death’ too, though. 

“I was so _ close. _ We’ll go after him and I’ll _ kill him _ one of these days for what he did to Donald,” Scrooge gruffs instead. They all watch as Lunaris turns around the ship he took off in, twisting it around to aim at the Earth. “He can’t be _ serious! _ Is he going to try to blow up the Earth?!”

Della twists around and look pointedly at the other rocket behind them. “We’ll go after him _ now. _ C’mon kids, I said I’d give you the stars, didn’t I?” 

They all stuff themselves into the cockpit, the kids manning the ship’s cannons and Della taking up the driver’s seat. Paperinik feels out of place, this is a personal thing, but Webby had pulled him in and told him that they needed someone to take on Lunaris headfirst. 

“Can you do it for our Uncle Donald? Did you know him?” 

Paperinik nods, coughs, speaks. “I did. He wasn’t the best duck I ever knew,” and then he stops. It’s not right to tell a child how terrible he is when they think he’s dead, “but I think that he was one of the bravest ducks I’ve met. He had flaws, yes, though I think he was more than enough.” 

That of course isn’t true. Paperinik thinks of his hero persona as just that. A hero who falls short. Donald Duck is not even close. He fails and fails and doesn’t get anything right even a sliver. 

“You can speak English?!” 

Paperinik doesn’t know how to respond, so he replies with a smirk and a shrug. 

Scrooge says something about taking out the engine first. Della starts to fly around the ship, letting the kids shoot the cannons and take down Lunaris’ turrets. They take down the ones on top, the ones on the bottom, on the wigs and the sides. It’s only when they cheer that they’re done and take position in the very back of the ship that more weapons pop up on the back. 

They keep hitting their ship dead on, taking out one of their cannons, and then the other. The ship rocks, the kids cry out. Della grits her teeth and tries to hold the ship steady. 

Paperinik knows she can’t. 

Lunaris’ back thruster glows hot, with the intent on burning out the Della’s ship. Paperinik sees right through his plan before the flames even reach their ship, and slides a hand into Della’s pocket. She has Oxychew still there, keeping it on her for some reason. Paranoia?

Paperinik takes it, pops it into his mouth, and turns to leave the ship. “I’ll take care of this. Fall back until the engine is out,” he says, voice deep and smooth.

“You can’t do that-!” 

He turns back to Scrooge. Raises a hand to his mask. “The kids will die if I don’t,” is all he says. He lifts the mask just a smidge, enough for Scrooge to see right through it. No one else is paying enough attention to Paperinik to see Donald Duck peer back, desperate and scared. “It’s always been for the kids.” 

“Lad-” 

Della cries out, the kids peering up at her. They don’t get to see Donald- Paperinik- leave the ship. They don’t get to see him leap off of the ship’s side, straight into the fiery abyss. 

\---

Scrooge watches as the entire engine explodes in a mess of fire and metal bits. Della cheers, obviously confused on how it happened, but elated nonetheless. The kids follow along, although more drained down. 

He does not cheer, because that was his boy. 

His boy, the one that went through his parents’ loss, the one who dealt with bullies because of his speech impediment and later his anger issues. The one who came to him, Della’s hand in his, when Grandma Duck sent them to Scrooge. The one that went on adventures to keep an eye on his sister, to keep an eye on Scrooge and make sure that he lost no one else. His boy, the one who raised _ three _ ducklings on his own. Three brilliant ducklings, of which were never supposed to be his responsibility. 

The one he thought was dead, and now almost surely is.

How he never guessed that Paperinik, Donald’s supposed best friend, was actually Donald all along is beyond him. Now all that he can think is, _ my nephew is dead. My nephew is dead because I let him go. _

Scrooge let him go, and now he is dead. 

They take off and round the ship, able to see through the glass walls as Selene talks to Lunaris. (Storkules must be torn, if he was ever really told about it.)

Lunaris is to spend the rest of his life in orbit around the Earth as it’s new moon. Ironic, isn’t it? 

They touch down on Earth and the people scream their names. Scrooge and the Ducks, Webby and Gladstone and Mrs. Beakley, Launchpad and everyone who helped them get to here all gather together and they cry.

When Della can finally speak without another sob rising, she speaks. “These past months have been full of surprises,” she says. “So many good ones, bad ones, weird and crazy ones.” Her and Louie share a look, and Scrooge tightens his hold on his cane. 

She’s trying to go somewhere with this, and Scrooge doesn’t want to listen. 

“Sometimes the mom you thought you lost comes back,” Louie says. For some reason, it feels like this isn’t the first time he’s said it. “Sometimes you lose your uncle because of it.” 

“Life isn’t always fair,” she replies. “But it’s like you said. Sometimes bad surprises lead to good ones. There’s a good one right around the corner, isn’t there?” 

Webby looks up and pulls on Scrooge’s sleeve. “What happened to the Duck Avenger?” she asks. “He just disappeared when we w-” She pauses, eyes widen. “He was the reason the ship exploded! He sacrificed himself for the world, like those heroic deaths in the stories, didn’t he!” Scrooge follows Della’s movements, pulling Webby against his side and looping an arm around him. She peaks up at him. 

“He’s dead too, isn’t he?” 

(Donald Duck dies twice. The world will never know.) 

“I’m sorry, lass,” Scrooge says. 

“He was Uncle Donald, wasn’t he? The Duck Avenger was Donald Duck.” 

Webby is such a smart girl, isn’t she? Scrooge has always thought she reminded him of Della. Della is so _ bright, _ so young and smart and he thinks that Webby will be just like her, and yet so much _ not_. 

She’ll be her own person, and so much better than this old generation. So will the boys. 

(If only Donald would be able to see his boys grow up the rest of the way.) 

“Yeah- Yes. He really was.” 

She shuts her beak and stares off. Scrooge can’t find it in himself to say anything else. He looks over to Della and the boys. She starts to sing an old song, something she used to sing to their eggs before they hatched and she disappears. 

“Uncle Donald used to sing that for us,” Huey says. “Every night.” 

Della reaches out and rubs his back. “He gave up so much for you boys, didn’t he? So much more than I did,” she whispers, as if afraid to break the silence anymore than it has been already. “He raised you all so well.” 

Launchpad brings around a limo eventually, letting a good portion of their group in. Mrs. Beakley gets in the front, beside Launchpad. The kids gather around each other. Gladstone and Fethry explain that they’re going to head off. Della and Scrooge sit across from each other. No one else dares come, and they all disperse. 

Well, not before Gizmoduck and Officer Cabrera pull Scrooge aside with downcast eyes. They talk in hushed voices about Donald and the Duck Avenger, saying they know his identity and are _ so _ very sorry for his loss. 

“I really thought it’d be hero work that killed him,” Officer Cabrera says, after Gizmoduck finishes explaining how he worked closely with Donald a handful of months ago during a tight emergency. Scrooge and the boys had been out of town when it happened. “I thought I’d have to track you down and explain to you what he does, that he’d been the Duck Avenger once upon a time. This… This doesn’t feel quite right to me.” 

“He died a hero,” Scrooge says, brushing her off. He moves to leave and the duo lets him. No matter what anyone says, Donald Duck died a hero. Whether it was the video of him on the moon, or it was just now in space, he _ was _ a hero. 

He has always been a hero, really. 

Scrooge sits down in the limo, and they speed off towards the mansion. 

Time speeds by, dinners are tense, and nights are freakishly long. Scrooge hardly sleeps, Della sleeps too much, and the children stick to one another. They don’t come up to talk to Scrooge, he’s not really sure if they talk to Della earlier. 

It might be because unlike Della, Donald’s been a _ constant. _ Someone to come home to after a hard day at school, or an exhausting mission. Someone to worry about them, no matter how much trouble they caused. Someone on their side until the very end of the line. 

They might be Della’s biological children, but they’re almost definitely Donald’s boys. Scrooge knows that Donald’s always thought that there was so much Della in them, even though she wasn’t around to influence it. Scrooge likes to think that it’s _ Donald _ that’s in them. They’re loyal, they’re angry when it counts. 

It’s so confusing that Donald always thought that he’d wasted his life. 

Really, this is how Scrooge spends the next few days. Together, him and Della work to set up a funeral for him. Without a body to use, to feels wrong. (They never had a funeral for Della. Scrooge refused to believe that she was dead. Donald disagreed, and then left before they could set anything up.) After that, Scrooge hides away in his office. He buries himself in his work, he thinks, and then heads off to dinner. That’s the only time in the day that he sees all of the kids. Mrs. Beakley is always around, Webby comes and goes and stays away. 

So, yes. Dinners are tense and no one knows what to say. 

Before, when Donald was here and Della was not, Donald would continue to prod the boys about their day. Either at school, or their adventure, or anything they did while he was away at work. The boys were always happy to comply, and Webby gladly threw in her own things when prompted. Donald wasn’t around them often either, so dinners were always mandatory. 

Donald worked, if that’s not all that obvious. He worked and worked, even though the boys had a roof over their head and Scrooge offered him a job at the Money Bin or somewhere else. He came home often, saying that he got fired or that he got a new job, that he blew the interview or that he had a relatively good day. 

If he wasn’t working, he was out in the back, rebuilding the houseboat. While it was fine that Donald lived out there, Scrooge never saw point in it. The thing kept falling apart, and there was a perfectly good room up in the mansion. 

He never said anything about it. 

On the fifth day, there comes a knocking on the mansion’s door. Della gets to it first, Scrooge gets there second. He’s expecting José or Panchito, expecting Storkules or someone else that he’d called when this whole thing ended. All three would be coming for the funeral soon, and might have ended up coming by early to see the kids. 

It could be one of Donald’s old friends from college, or his early twenties. The Mouses, a married couple, possibly? The Goofs, a single father and son? Daisy Duck? 

Della opens it, and it’s a Moonlander with hard eyes. Scrooge twirls his cane in his hand so he can use it as a weapon, but Della holds up her hand and says, “Penny?” 

“Hi, roomie,” ‘Penny’ says, voice soft and tired. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you when my people attacked. I’m also sorry I couldn’t stop Lunaris.” 

“It’s fine,” Della says. “Do you want to come inside?” 

Penny shakes her head, and then looks over her shoulder. Just beyond his main garden is a ship digging into the ground. The top door is open. “I have something of yours,” she says. Before Scrooge can curse her out for ‘parking’ the rocket there, Della asks her to lead the way to the rocket, curiosity peaked. 

“I could’ve sworn I had everything with me when I left. All of my stuff was still in the rocket,” Della says, beckoning for Scrooge to follow. He does, of course. He was going to follow anyway, heart pumping in anticipation. Della’s normally right, if she didn’t leave something she probably didn’t. “I’m glad you’re back though, roomie! We can room together here, in Donald’s-” 

Della’s face falls and she bites her tongue. 

“You’re welcome to stay in the mansion, lass,” Scrooge speaks up, pointed at Penny. Even though his voice is subdued, he quirks a brow and grins. “Mrs. Beakley can set up a room for both you and Della if you’d prefer?” 

“What are you trying to imply, Uncle Scrooge?!” Della cries, immediately coming back into herself. 

“Nothin, lass!” 

When they’re at the ship, Penny climbs in. “I can lift- _ Hey! _What did I say?!” 

Scrooge holds himself back from looking inside. She might have someone else in there with her, one of the other Moonlanders probably? Della rocks on her heels, but doesn’t move to follow. 

It feels like an eternity before Penny pops back out, for some reason. When she does, she’s got someone’s arm draped over her shoulder, their head lolling to the side as they stare forward with glazed-over eyes. They’ve got on a mask, half torn and not really working to hide their identity. Their hair feathers are ruffled, void of any kind of hat. 

Scrooge knows who it is before he sees him. 

He doesn’t give Penny the chance to climb down, before he scrambles up the side and takes Donald into his arms. It takes Della a second, or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe she freezes first, but when she comes up, it’s a beat after Scrooge. He takes in having Donald back in his arms, unable to really remember the last time he got to hold him. Della begins to tear up, this is the first time she’s gotten to be with him in person for the last ten years. 

“Lad,” Scrooge calls, when they finally withdraw. Together, him and Della work on walking him to the door. He works on taking off his mask- he’s already down his cape- before Della can really think about why he’s wearing it. “Boy, can you hear me?” 

Della shoots a look over to Penny. “What _ happened _to him? Where did you find him?”

“He was floating in space. The only reason he survived was because of that gum you were chewing on the moon.” 

“Oxychew?” 

Penny shrugs. She must not know what that is. 

All four of them get to the door, and there stand four ducklings with wet eyes and little frowns. “Uncle Donald!” they all chorus, panicked, confused, worried. Scrooge motions for them to move, so they can at least lay Donald down on the couch. Blearily, Donald blinks. He mumbled something, his voice making it impossible to decipher. His head ends up against Scrooge’s shoulder. Scrooge tries not to think about it. 

They get him onto the couch, Mrs. Beakley somehow already holding some towels, a first aid kit lying just beside her, on the ground. “My _ word,_” she says when her eyes land on Donald. 

She helps Scrooge patch him up, and then the whole family sits beside him. They sit, and they wait. When Donald blindly grabs his hand, Scrooge shuts his beak and breathes. 

(His boy is back. That’s all he could ask.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, folks! This is a series, so be sure to look out for other parts to this!


End file.
